Jack Lester’s first task will be keeping this group of players in touch at the bottom of Sky Bet League Two until reinforcements arrive in January, according to Derbyshire Times sport writer Graham Smyth.

The Spireites failed to build on a moral boosting win against Crawley Town on Tuesday night, despite taking the lead in the second half through Kristian Dennis.

It now means that they have failed to win back to back games for almost a calendar year, and are six points from safety with results elsewhere going against them.

“From a Chesterfield point of view it will be very disappointing,” Smyth said after watching Chesterfield’s defeat.

“I think it will be even more disappointing as it’s coming off the back of a win and a very good performance.

“Chesterfield haven’t won back-to-back games since November last year so they really would have wanted to get a win and put two in a row together and they went 1-0 up so there was a real opportunity.

“As has been the case so many times, defensive lapses and errors, possibly a goalkeeping error today, have really cost them.

"They’ve struggled in the final third with the final ball, with being incisive and cutting teams open.

"They can play nice stuff between both boxes but it’s often what happens in either box that costs them and that was the case today really. They didn’t create much in the way of chances for all the possession they had."

Smyth, who thought that Piero Mingoia's goal in the first half was harshly ruled out, also revealed that Spireites owner Dave Allen visited the Proact Stadium for the first time in over a year to meet Lester, and fans hope that they hammered out an agreement for January targets.

“It’s not a great situation, and I suspect his [Lester’s] task may be to keep this group of players in touch, better if he can, but just in touch until January and then bring in some reinforcements,” Symth said.

“We’ll have to wait and see [who comes in]. The owner returned to the ground for the first time in almost a year last week and talked to Jack about potential transfer activity, so I think the fans will be keeping fingers crossed something can happen in January.”